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Sunday, 23 June 2013

Business as usual for Audi as tragedy mars Le Mans

Audi claimed their 12th victory of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a dominating performance from the manufacturer that saw Tom Kristensen claim his record ninth win. He shared the #2 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro with Allan McNish and Loic Duval who won for the third and first time respectively.

However, it was the #1 Audi which led the early stages but Duval took the lead in hour seven as the #1 car of Benoit Treluyer, Andre Lotterer andMarcel Fassler hit problems and spent a considerable time in the pits whilst the problem was fixed. Meanwhile bodywork damage as the result of a puncture put paid to the #3 Audi's hopes

Audi's main rivals Toyota capitalised on this to move their two cars to second and third. The #8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Stephane Sarrazin and Anthony Davidson held on to the runner up sport whilst a crash for the #7 Toyota put it out of the running after it lost third to the #3 Audi.

in LMP2, the OAK Morgans finished first and second G-Drive/Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan of Mike Conway, John Martin and Roman Rusinov claimed third.

Despite dominating the class, Aston Martin had to settle for third in GTE Pro as the works Porsches being campaigned by Manthey claimed a one two finish.

GTE Am was also set to be dominated by Aston Martin Racing after claiming class pole, however heir hopes were to disappear tragically on just the third lap as Allan Simonsen crashed at Tertre Rouge. The incident claiming the 34 year old's life. The #76 Imsa Porsche piloted by the all French lineup of Raymond Narac, Jean-Karl Vernay and Cristophe Bourret claimed the class win ahead of the #55 and #61 works Ferrari 458s.